Gibraltarian Hauntologies: Spectres of Colonialism in the Fiction of M. G. Sanchez

Abstract

This essay discusses two novels by Gibraltarian writer M. G. Sanchez, Jonathan Gallardo (2015) and Solitude House (2015). In both novels, the protagonists are haunted by ghosts from the past, emerging from otherworlds, or parallel worlds, whose boundaries have become permeable. I argue that Sanchez’s literary otherworlds offer an incisive critique of border consciousness and residual colonialism in Gibraltar. In terms of genre, Sanchez’s writing oscillates between the postcolonial gothic and magical realism. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s concept of ‘hauntology’, I argue that Gibraltar itself emerges as a spectre of colonialism, reminding both Britain and Europe of their history of colonial exploitation that comes back to haunt them in the shape of the victims of global carbon capitalism.